iPod confessions: what’s your embarrassing list

The other day my older sister and I were talking about music, and she laughed and said, “With the amount of embarrassing music I have on my IPod, I won’t let anyone listen to it without my supervision – it would be like reading my diary!” The more I thought about it, the more it made so much sense. People find out you like a Britney Spears song and immediately draw a million conclusions about what type of person you must be.

The topic of music is a big deal when you are on the dating scene. To some people, it’s a deal breaker if you don’t enjoy the same tunes. It’s as serious to some people as religious or political affiliations. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve rolled my eyes when someone I am on a date with tells me they don’t listen to “mainstream” music. Like it’s going to infect them with some disease. Well, congratulations, you must be a better person than I am because I rock out when “Single Ladies” comes on.

I love music but listen to so much variety it’s really hard for me to judge other people. What I listen to has to do with my mood at that time. The only genre of music I genuinely don’t like is opera and even that could change if you put me in front of the right one. But most people aren’t that open-minded. You have to have a thick skin to be honest with people about your musical taste.

I’m pretty confident in myself and I don’t care too much what other people think, so I’m revealing the ten most embarrassing songs I have on my IPod, in hopes that others out there will not be afraid to reveal their deepest, darkest song selections.

10. “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus – I think I should get a pass for this one because I’m a girl, but this song is so catchy I want to gouge my ears out because it plays over and over in my head when I hear only parts of it.

9. “I Keep Forgetting” by Michael McDonald. My entire family (except my dad) makes fun of me for liking this song/artist but there is something about his voice that makes me want to sing out loud. Plus my dad really likes Michael McDonald so it reminds me of him.

8. “I Saw the Sign” by Ace of Base. This came out when I was in elementary school and it wasn’t “cool” to like them, so in public I denounced the band but I secretly listened to the tape every day after school. It also wasn’t “cool” to wear both straps of your backpack, and I had to have back surgery at age 23, so you can just guess how much I regret both of those decisions.

7. The soundtracks to “Rent,” “Les Miserables,” and “Moulin Rouge” – I have more soundtracks on there but these three are probably the most embarrassing to play out loud, in your car, with the windows rolled down. Once I was singing along to “525,600 Minutes” while waiting for a toll bridge and some guy told me I should try out for American Idol. He was laughing.

6. The instrumental theme from “Halloween” – This is an inside joke between me and my youngest sister, so it’s funny to us when it comes on, but people give me the strangest looks when it comes on in between regular songs. Just because I have the Halloween theme on my IPod doesn’t mean I am going to kill you.

5. “I’ll Make Love To You” by Boyz II Men” – Hands down favorite lyric that made me giggle and blush as a teenager and still as an adult: “Throw your clothes/on the floor/I’m gonna take my clothes off too.”

4. “Stars Are Blind” by Paris Hilton – I really don’t have any excuses for this one. For some reason I actually don’t want to throw up when I hear this song. If you didn’t know it was Paris Hilton you would probably give it a chance too.

3. “MMMBop” by Hanson – I can thank my other younger sister for this one. She was obsessed with Hanson when she was a kid. Of course, I played my role of snobby big sister perfectly and pretended to hate them but always found some type of excuse to be around when she played their CD.

2. Several selections from the catalogue of Canadian diva Celine Dion. Even if you hate Celine with the passion of a thousand suns, you cannot deny the lady has an amazing vocal range, and the soaring instrumental background music she pairs with every song is enough to make you shiver. My heart will always go on for her.

1. “Give It To You” by Jordan Knight. Not many of you out there will know this one. But die-hard fans of New Kids on the Block, or NKOTB, as they were known in later years, will know who Jordan Knight is, and will probably have listened to his solo album, which contained this song. It’s a mixture of hip-hop and carnival music. Just listen to it, you won’t be sorry.